Navigating the Waters: The Difference between Design Thinking and UX

Do you know the difference between bananas and apples? Okay, it’s not that extreme, but the difference between Design Thinking and User Experience Design is similar.

In the dynamic realm of digital product development and innovation management, these two keywords stand out as guiding lights. While these terms have similar approaches, they represent distinct focuses and objectives. The initial situation for which both are used is different.

Design Thinking: A fast and holistic Problem-Solving Approach

The big challenge with design thinking is that you have to experience it before you understand the power behind it. Design Thinking is not a single method; the whole approach reflects the mindset of designers. Or better said, it is a reflection of how designers think, mapped in phases so that managers or developers can also work within creative environments. That’s it. As the way designer think, which is usually chaotic, promotes ideas and new concepts, it was mapped in an approach called Design Thinking. The idea behind this approach is to help people who are not designers to think creatively and come up with innovative ideas. Companies use it as an approach to bring new product ideas to life with the same creative way of thinking as designers do. Design thinking helps managers and developers, for example, to come up with new ideas creatively and to adopt the user perspective without losing their point of view.

The single phases of Design Thinking can also be carried out iteratively until one or more problems and pain points have been found, ideas created and made tangible, mostly in form of a simple paper prototype, to verify if the problem is solved. If a product idea to a specific problem has proven to solve the pain points and has been prioritised by the workshop team, it can be passed on. In fact and in case of a digital product: to UX.

User Experience Design: Crafting Seamless Digital Experiences

The idea that was previously developed in the design thinking workshop will be further elaborated in detail with specific User Experience methods and approaches. The UX Designer analyses, designs and develops the idea further, but in much more detail than it was done in the Design Thinking workshop. UX Designers collaborate closely with researchers, developers, and other stakeholders to translate insights gleaned from Design Thinking into tangible and concrete solutions. The highlight is on the word concrete. This often involves creating wireframes and user flows, conducting usability tests, and refining designs based on user feedback. User-flows, story maps and high quality prototypes will be created. Sounds like a lot of work? Yes, it is! But it is totally worth it since the output is high and has great added value. That means UX Design is more focused and specialised. It’s all about enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility, and desirability of a product or service. UX Designers delve deep into understanding user behavior and preferences to create intuitive interfaces and engaging experiences on existing product ideas. Mostly throughout a hole customer journey. From a triggered need to fulfilment. Unlike Design Thinking, which encompasses to find a problem or pains from user and create new ideas based on that, UX Design primarily focuses on the execution phase of this idea. The basic idea, however, already exists from the Design Thinking phase. This does not mean that UX designers will not have innovative ideas if they continue to work with the idea delivered from the Design Thinking phase. Quite the opposite: they work out creative and versatile variants and thus also bring outside-the-box thinking into the process.

Bridging the gap: How Design Thinking and UX complement each other

Design Thinking and UX design complement each other seamlessly, forming a symbiotic relationship that drives innovation and fosters user-centric design.

Design Thinking provides the strategic framework and mindset needed to find problems and tackle them in a creative way. It encourages empathy, fosters collaboration, and promotes a deep understanding of user needs as well as the understanding and input from different roles within a company. Yes, you have read that correctly. It’s not just about the user or the customer, but also about the people in the company. If different roles and, above all, the employees of a company are involved in the idea process, not only feasible results achieved more quickly, but the understanding of the mission is also strengthened. This is because different perspectives already gave input from the beginning. Employees are more likely to accept changes and even work towards them through understanding. That’s why Change Management and Design Thinking goes hand in hand.

On the other hand, UX Design, as well as Product Design, serves as the practical implementation of the outcome from Design Thinking. By focusing on usability, accessibility, and aesthetics, UX designers bring the ideas from Design Thinking workshops to life, ultimately delivering products and services that delight users. To combine and be aware of these two different application is a superpower for innovation — an innovation that can also be implemented and which has a deliberate added value for the company and its customers.

Conclusion: Embracing the power of Design Thinking and UX

In today’s fast-paced and competitive digital landscape, harnessing the power of Design Thinking and UX Design is more critical than ever. By understanding the nuances and differences between these approaches, designers and innovators can leverage their strengths to create transformative products and experiences that leave a lasting impact on users.

Design Thinking provides the overarching framework for problem-solving, encouraging creativity, empathy, and collaboration. UX Design, on the other hand, focuses on the execution phase, translating insights into intuitive and user-friendly customer journeys and user flows through interfaces. In combination and following one after another, Design Thinking and UX Design lead to new digital products which are fast to market, innovative and with a high value for users.

As I mentioned it at the beginning: you have to experience it before you understand the power behind it. Because of that we train our employees regarding the power of Design Thinking in combination with UX design in order to transfer this advantage to our customers.